Sou'wester Residency

I just got back from an artist residency at the Sou'wester,  a sweet resort comprised of cabins, vintage travel trailers, and an historic lodge in Seaview, Washington. I went with the goal of creating a little guide to bicycling the Discovery Trail; this multi-use path twists through the dunes, the headlands, and the coastal forests of the Long Beach Peninsula. 

What a great week spent bookmaking and staring at the surf! Every morning, I rode my bike down the winding trail, thinking about the history of the land, watching the changeable weather,  listening to the frogs hop and the snowy plovers skitter, smelling the sea spray, mapmaking, and plotting how to share this path I love in a little handmade pamphlet. Thank you, Sou'wester,  for this chance to focus on creating a little document about an amazing place. 

Here's what I made: 

Bicycling the Discovery Trail by Sandra Gibbons, hand-sewn pamphlet on parchment papers, 12p, fold-out map. Shown on cute table in Sou'wester's Cabin #10.

Checking the way after the rain. This hand-made map was fun to make. (Full-disclosure: I cheated on this by tracing parts of official maps.)

Clark's Jaunt, in Statues and Bones. The Discovery Trail marks the spot where Lewis and Clark turned around. They didn't "discover" anything (of course), but there are some cool statues peeking out the the Dunes to commemorate the expedition.

Tides, Winds, Time. The ocean near the mouth of the Columbia River is notoriously rough and known for shipwrecks.

Haunted(?) Beach Towns. Long Beach and Seaview, with their long histories and abundance of memorial benches, are likely haunted. 

Head to Long Beach Peninsula, visit the Sou'wester, and get a copy of this pamphlet at their utterly charming Honor Store.  Then, hit the trail!